A friend, Teresa Zinn Tardy, asked me to deconstruct a pattern into a step-out, which I've done here. I'm calling it ZinnTardy! It was a complex pattern with lots of points and small curves, so I rounded it out and am afraid I've lost some of what made the pattern unique. But, even with the rounding out, it takes eight steps to complete. If I'd kept all the zigs and zags it would have taken twenty, lol! I hope Teresa likes it any way. If you find yourself having a problem try drawing in some pencil guidelines (which I hope you can see here). Draw an X from corner to corner, and then a + to bisect the square into four. At step 5, use these lines to help decide placement of your elements. As you learn the pattern, you shouldn't need the pencil lines.

There is lots of room for variation. If you find you haven't left yourself room for all the steps, leave some of them out. Fill in some of the areas but not others. Change the shape of the elements. Go craz…

Oh! I'm dancing a happy jig! There were two magazines in the mail today!

I knew my work (a collaboration with DeeDee Catron) would be on the inside of the RubberStampMadness, but I didn't know I'd made page 100 of the Just Steampunk Volume 2! Haven't had time to scour the issue yet, but I also saw work from fellow Viva Las Vegastamps! design team members Lea Cioci, Susan M. Brown, and Lyneen Jesse, as well as from Terri Sproul, Joe Rotella and Edie Cournoyer.

Fox Chapel has published a compilation book, 'Joy of Zentangle', which incorporates portions of previous Zentangle books that were written by Suzanne McNeill, CZT®, Sandy Steen Bartholomew, CZT, and Marie Browning, CZT.

Compilation book--what does that mean?

Well, it means that if you already own Zentangle books written by the above authors, you may have some of the articles and tangles that are published in this book. The content of this book was taken from: Zentangle Basics, Zentangle 2 thru 8, Zen Mandalas, Inspired by Zentangle Fabric Arts Quilting Embroidery, Totally Tangles, Yoga for Your Brain, Zentangle for Kidz, and Time to Tangle with Colors.

Should you buy this book? Well, maybe.

Pros: If you are new to Zentangle, this is would be a nice starter book, and cheaper than buying all the other books. Even if you do own 1 or 2 books, you might want a 'sampler' of tangles and writing by more than one author, this would be a good book.
If you own the other books, …

Stephanie's 3rd Big Anniversary Giveaway! 20 winners! Includes A Rhodia DotWebbie and an Exacompta Basic Pocket Portfolio and index cards.
Augh! I want to enter this contest just for the portfolio, lol! However, since I have everything but the index cards, I'l be nice and leave these prizes for the rest of you! Good luck everyone!

Drawing and Painting Imaginary AnimalsA Mixed-Media Workshop with Carla Sonheim
Recently, I was fortunate enough to win a copy of Carla Sonheim's Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals. I was pretty excited from the moment I heard the book was out--you may have noticed that I've been posting several links to reviews and tutorials about it. I've never taken one of Carla's classes, but I've seen enough of her work online and heard enough from her students to know she's awesome. So her book had to be awesome too.

What impressed me was the alignment of her ideas with the philosophy of Zentangle®. The 'no mistakes, go with the flow, joy of creating' feel to her work seemed to me like it was something most tanglers would enjoy, even though her technique uses more realism (in a very imaginary way, lol).

My brother's birthday was fast approaching and I still hadn't made a card for him. I wanted to do something amusing. I wanted to use the train tracks stamps that Viva Las Vegastamps! had made using my artwork (18990and 18989and I also I also used stamp 18992, which is NOT from my artwork) I also wanted to use a piece of Gruppo Cordenon's Stardream Paper. They sent me some sample books a months ago, for a review of their Plike paper and they included a sample book with other lines as well, including Stardream. The Stardream blurb at the Gruppo Cordenon's site reads: Stardream is a distinctive range of metallic, iridescent and pearlescent colors created expressly for the designer and printer to give an "astral effect" to your work, meeting the more sophisticated trends of color and fashion. Available in 32 colors and 5 stellar dual sided color combinations, Stardream will add another dimension to any project. This paper is gorgeous! It has a hard, glimmery sur…

Alain Guy posted the step out to his new tangle pattern Coffee Beenz (name subject to change). He doesn't have a blog, and since he posted in a group that only members can see, he gave me permission to share it with you on my blog. (edited to remove a blooper moment. Alain is a manly man, and I went on automatic with all my 'she's in the post, lol)

I went to Blockheads Paper Arts for a make'n'take last Thursday and, afterwards, I took home the kraft paper that was used to protect the table from the sprays we were using (I misplaced the card I made, lol).

I've also been reading Carla Sonheim's 'Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals'(which I'll be reviewing once I've finished it) and I started looking at the stains on the kraft paper. I didn't quite use the method Carla teaches, because I drew directly on the paper and turned my blobs into...

...a long-tailed lamb. Couldn't get a very good shot because it's a goodly size piece of paper.

Left side-My rubber stamp resist from the front of this *bleedthrumanade actually provided a better negative space on the back of the page. The alcohol markers colored the matte medium I used on the front, but kept the color from bleeding through.

I decided to ignore the boundaries of the color and just draw.

Right-Well, the trees were supposed to be negative space, but I couldn't resist adding some shading. *sigh* I'm a shading addict. Complete compulsion, absolute obsession with shading, lol! Can you find the kitty? The two birds?

*Bleedthrumanade--Got lemons? Make lemonade. Got marker bleed-thru? Make bleedthrumanades! Alcohol markers bleed through most paper and you get color on both the front and the back. While this bothers most people, I decided to make use of it. I color one side of the page and draw on it, then turn the page and use the same color for a second drawing--a bleedthrumanade.

Since another of my favorite things is using rubber stamps that were made based on my artwork, I decided to incorporate that with more subtle use of negative space--so subtle that it almost didn't work as a resist, lol.

The Marvy La Plume markers I used for the *bleedthrumanade on the right colored the matte medium I used for stamping. I had expected the color to wipe off, but had to use a blender pen to even lighten it. Lesson learned! Alcohol markers will color matte medium even though it's a resist for acrylic paints--or is supposed to be!

*Bleedthrumanade--Got lemons? Make lemonade. Got marker bleed-thru? Make bleedthrumanades! Alcohol markers bleed through most paper and you get color on both the front and the back. While this bothers most people, I decided to make use of it. I color one side of the page and draw on it, then turn the page and use the same color for a second drawing--a bleedthrumanade.

Just another reminder-- I'll be hosting the Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper on October 9th.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Carnival, it's a once-a-month roundup of articles relating in some way to the topic of Pens, Pencils and Paper. It's a way for like-minded people to find each other's blogs--you'll find new people to follow and new people will find your blog, if you submit an article or two.

A while back I wrote a review about Plike paper, a product from Gruppo Cordenons, and I've used it in several projects since. At that time, the company was in the process of setting their online store, and you can now order Plike (or other paper from their excellent range).

Prices vary, and some of the papers, such as Plike, require special handling, such as extended drying times for the ink. But they have such interesting textures and produce such an elegant finished product!

I have other paper sample pamphlets from the company, and I have to apologize to them. I was busy for a while, and the samples fell out of my view and...well, out of sight, out of mind. I'll be amending that, and experimenting. I'll be letting you know my results.

Ah, getting old. I know there's a name for these beveled pieces, but it escapes me. Somewhatty-or-ever will have to do for now.

I went to the weekly make'n'take at the local Blockhead Paper Arts store yesterday, and got the chance to play with Goosebumps texture spray. We also played with Adirondack color washes and Dylusion Ink spray and stencils and stamps--great fun!

I decided to buy some of the matte version of the Goosebumps because I had the idea of using it to glue Micro Marbles to the page with it-sort of like suspending them in semi-clear gesso.

After I got the piece home, I grabbed a white and a gold gel pen, and an American Craft Precision pen and drew a young lady in the beveled inset, added Zentangle-inspired patterns around the rest.

It's all so shiny that it was difficult to get either a good scan or a good photo.

Then I tangled the outside. I emphasized the micro marbles by outlining them with the black pen. It was funny. The marbles on both sid…

I started tangling since about mid-2009. And though I've never become a Certified Zentangle®-Teacher (CZT®), I've been knee-deep in Zentangle ever since. I've created steps for over 280 tangle patterns and I think I'm one of the most prolific tanglers out there. I'll qualify that-my work is actually Zentangle-Inspired Art rather than traditional Zentangle, but no matter how much I stray, the inspiration that comes from that method is always present.

Despite that, I've never taken a Zentangle class! Until now, anyway. Part of the reason was that I never found a class available that didn't require travel. When I saw that Suzanne McNeill was going to be teaching a Zentangle 101 class at the Art & Soul Retreat in Oregon, I was thrilled and signed up immediately.

Did I expect to learn anything new? Not exactly. I know most of the basic tangles, but I was curious to see what a class was like, and there is a zest to be found in creating with a group of li…